For some services, such as television, telephone, internet, home monitoring, etc., certain equipment is installed at a customer's premises. The equipment may include a computing device, such as a cable or satellite set-top box, a digital video recorder, a digital subscriber line (“DSL”), cable, or fiber optic cable modem, a router, a broadband gateway, a wireless network access point, a voice over internet protocol (“VoIP”) client, or a combination thereof, for example, among other devices. Depending upon the circumstances, the equipment may be installed at the customer's premises, such as a home or office, by the customer or by a service technician of the service provider.
Over time, the customer may experience difficulties with the equipment. For example, the service or function provided by the equipment may only work intermittently over time, based on a variable communications or connectivity status between the equipment and the service provider, for example. In this case, the customer may need to contact the service provider for assistance with troubleshooting the problem.
In some cases, the equipment may identify a connectivity problem, and indicate the problem to the customer via one or more indicators, such as a flashing or blinking light. Such an indicator, while providing some limited feedback to the customer, is generally not adequate to assist the customer with troubleshooting the problem. Further, a flashing or blinking indicator might go unnoticed by the customer for some period of time. With regard to correcting the problem, an inconspicuous indicator may not be suitable to quickly identify and address the problem, which may possibly lead to the customer's frustration.
The drawings illustrate only example embodiments and are therefore not to be considered limiting of the scope described herein, as other equally effective embodiments are within the scope and spirit of this disclosure. The elements and features shown in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the embodiments. Additionally, certain dimensions or positions of elements and features may be exaggerated to help visually convey certain principles. In the drawings, similar reference numerals between figures designate like or corresponding, but not necessarily the same, elements.